Rum Doings Episode 205: Social Anxiety Seats
by John Walker on Dec.03, 2015, under Rum Doings
In our 205th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, in this age of iPhones and Uber, why can’t binmen be replaced with robots?
Recorded yesterday, before the vote result, we obviously spend a good deal of time discussing the matter of bombing Syria, and the politics involved on either side. Things move on to John’s recent panel appearance at the Being A Man Festival (no, really), chivalry, and then the PC tech war.
And Noel Edmond’s face.
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[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/205_rumdoings.mp3]
December 4th, 2015 on 15:46
A.. mostly good podcast. I don’t suppose it’s too much to ask that Nick just stops talking about trans people, especially if he’s going to use a term to describe them which many regard as offensive? I suspect the target of this joke on this occasion was actually at the men engaging in chivalry towards women, but… urgh.
With regards to Syria, while I mostly agree with the thrust of what you are saying, I don’t think it’s as simple as saying count the number of civilians at threat vs the number of deaths caused by bombing and make your decision accordingly. Making it a trolley problem is cheating, because while it has similar aspects to that, there may be long term ramifications beyond the immediate deaths. The failure to engage in long term thinking was my main problem with the Iraq conflict, and it’s my main problem here.
While there is a bit more of an effort here to at least acknowledge that the future is the problem, I don’t see how bombing IS won’t lead to Assad regaining power if Russia continues to back him.
Regarding masculinity in media, it wasn’t a baseball bat, it was a whip (well, flaily whippy thing?)! This is actually an important point because Casino Royale actually engages with the tropes of masculinity that Bond personifies. Attacking him with a baseball bat would be a quite different gesture to whipping him there (also, they didn’t show the act, but just the build up and the sound).
I would argue that, in general, in TV and film, outside of horror films, women get raped and men get tortured. I don’t actually see this sort of trend repeating so much in games, if only because both are very rare (although if there is torture, it seems to be the player doing it these days).
I also find the “useless man” advert obnoxious because I know men in real life who basically emulate this behaviour. To be honest, I used to in a lot of ways, but more and more try to avoid it and just get on with doing what chores need doing.
December 8th, 2015 on 13:55
Who is “Noel Edmond” ?